First Rock For Life

This week my battalion is being re-flagged in conjunction with a change of command. Being "re-flagged" means that we are changing names. We will no long be the 1st Battalion 503D Infantry Regiment.; the battalion will now be known as 1 Battalion 9th Infantry Regiment. No more will our motto be "First Rock!" - the "Rock" is now the "Manchu". I am a little sad and a little perturbed about losing our name and identity to some battalion in the 101st Airborne Div.
The 1-503D has a storied history stretching back to World War II when the battalion was one of the original formations of the fledgling Army Airborne force. The battalion took on the name "The Rock" and the motto "First Rock" from a daring airborne assault of the rock of Corregidor in the Philippine islands. (I have always found it strange that my battalion took so much pride in the airborne portion of the assault when 1-503D actually assaulted by boat and 2-503d actually assaulted from their parachutes.) The battalion went on to fight in Vietnam as part of the 173D Airborne Brigade and was among the first US forces on the ground and among the last to leave. The 1-503D spent the years after Vietnam as part of the storied 101st Airborne Division until 1984 when the unit was deactivated. In 1986 the unit was reactivated and assigned to 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division. In 2004 the unit deployed to Ar-Ramadi, Al Anbar province in Iraq, an area reputed to be the most dangerous place in the world at the time.
What angers me most is having to learn a new unit history. I thought I had taken my last history class in college. Time to learn about the Manchu...